Wouldn’t it be nice to be introduced as a business owner of a well-known brand? But wouldn’t it be better if your brand is known to a specific group of people who are aware how your products and services fit into their lives? That would closely translate to increasing sales.

Here are three strategies on increasing your brand awareness.

1. Co-branding

The first strategy is co-branding, which means partnering with another company to introduce your products or services to the customers of the other company. How does this benefit both companies?

By doing so, companies are actually addressing their customers’ unmet desires. Perhaps it is not your expertise, or not cost-savvy to provide something that your customer would be delighted to experience. If you could find a partner that targets the same group of customers, allow you to surprise your customers and at the same time, benefit from the additional exposure, both companies can stand to gain.

One great example of such is local home grown brand – Twelve Cupcakes. They recently made their popular red velvet cupcakes available for purchase on all outbound Jetstar flights. So, the next time you are on a Jetstar flight, you can satisfy your cupcake craving!

Another benefit of co-branding is that it allows businesses to develop unique products that would not be possible as a solo venture. The successful collaboration between our very own fashion e-commerce label –Love Bonito and highly acclaimed couturier Julien Fournie, provided a platform for you and me to lay our hands on those gorgeous apparel which is wearable for work and play.

On a grander scale, Google and Nestle collaborated to launch the Android 4.4 Kit Kat. Google’s goal was to “make an amazing Android experience available for everyone” hence the Android shaped chocolate bar. What’s more – on the Kit Kat wrapper, it states that you can stand a chance to win a Nexus 7 by purchasing these exclusive chocolate bars. This campaign created much hype in the social media space, which in this case, both brands benefitted from the sharing of marketing costs, and the overlapped consumers’ faith in the individual brands.

One key takeaway point to ponder on before implementing this first strategy is – who (or more specifically which brand) should you partner with? As you are considering this, think about not only the compatibility of product attributes, but more importantly, whether the company’s brand positioning and core values are aligned with yours.

(2) Gain accolades

The second strategy that companies can do is to gain accolades to increase your brand awareness. I do understand that many companies have trouble justifying the amount of time and money it takes to participate in awards submissions but in most cases, the benefits outweighs the effort.

One of the perks include boosting employees’ moral. Employees will feel good being associated to a winning company, furthermore, employees that are proud of their company’s achievements are far more likely to share the good news with prospects and clients, making it easier to gain business. Besides boosting internal culture, winning awards will also demonstrate your business’ level of competency and differentiate you from competitors. Lastly, the recognition from the awards will assist to present your brand and business in a positive light, conveying the message to your customers on why they should choose you and it encourages them to keep coming back to you.

There are many awards in the marketplace available for businesses to participate in. What would be the most honourable to receive? Receiving an industry specific award is a validation of your business expertise and a sure-way of enhancing the credibility of your business. Associations of the various industries will have information to such awards. Other prestigious awards is the Singapore Prestige Brand Award, an effort by Association of Small Medium Enterprise (ASME) and Lianhe Zaobao to honour Singapore brands that have been successful in becoming prominent brand names. With this accolade, the aim is also to boost your brand to fuel overseas expansion plans.

(3) Champion a Cause

There are many awards in the marketplace available for businesses to participate in. What would be the most honourable to receive? Receiving an industry specific award is a validation of your business expertise and a sure-way of enhancing the credibility of your business. Associations of the various industries will have information to such awards. Other prestigious awards is the Singapore Prestige Brand Award, an effort by Association of Small Medium Enterprise (ASME) and Lianhe Zaobao to honour Singapore brands that have been successful in becoming prominent brand names. With this accolade, the aim is also to boost your brand to fuel overseas expansion plans.

The obvious benefit of this move is that it displays a brand’s desire to make a positive contribution to social issues to the wider community. It also offers the brand an opportunity to engage their target audience on an emotional level (beyond just the product or service).

For instance, the UOB-SMU Asian Enterprise Institute is an alliance between UOB, SMU that works with local enterprises to enhance the business knowledge, and at the same time, aid in addressing issues SMEs face. The institute’s principal initiative – the SME Consulting Program, allows students of the university to have real world experiences by working with experienced consultants on business consultancy projects mandated by SMEs, benefiting all parties. In addition, the institute also organises SME Development Series Talks and Workshops to share knowledge with a wider group of audience. You can check out their platform here as it provides many useful financial and marketing toolkits for SMEs.

This is part of Piquant’s series on the topic of ‘Why preserve the status quo?’ – do check out our previous posts for our earlier articles. We welcome any comments and are happy to take any of your burning questions too! Feel free to type away in our blog or Facebook page.